Perched on a rocky islet, Kisimul Castle was the stronghold of Clan MacNeil from the 11th century until 2000, when it came under the auspices of gov­ernment heritage agency Historic Scotland, on a 1,000-year lease with an annual token rent of £1 and a bottle of whisky.

With beaches in short supply, Malta is a “swim off the rocks” kind of place. This makes the Blue Lagoon on the neighbour­ing island of Comino even more special. Frosty white sands and luminous trans­lucent Mediterranean seas draw swimmers and sightseers by the boatload.

Most are probably unaware that anyone actually lives here but car-free Comino is home to three members of the same family.

Hiking is best enjoyed in spring, when temperatures have yet to soar and the place is carpeted in wild flowers and herbs (Comino is named after the spice cumin). Besides water taxis and boat tours, visitors can reach the 3.5 sq km land mass via a ferry that shuttles between Malta and the sleepy island of Gozo.

Stromboli is one of eight islands that form the Aeolian archipelago off the north coast of Sicily. Known by the Romans as the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean, it is home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes, which has been erupting for at least 2,000 years. Stromboli’s fertile volcanic soil originally attracted farmers, but most of today’s 300 full-time residents make a living from day trippers.

Guides lead tourists up to the crater to watch the evening sky light up with near continuous bursts of fiery lava. Stromboli by Night boat tours offer the same pyrotechnic show, but from a safer distance.

Besides the volatile volcano, visitors head to the island’s black sandy beach to photograph the colourful fishing boats, before exploring the whitewashed town and San Vincenzo church, where worshippers probably pray a little harder than most.

On the Estonian island of Kihnu, tradition long dictated that men worked as fisher­men and seal hunters, which meant they were absent for extended periods. As a result, only about half a dozen of the 300 residents at any one time were men, and women had no choice but to do everything for themselves. Multitasking came natu­rally – from repairing farming equipment to making their own clothing and, more recently, managing homestays.

The women also became custodians of Kihnu’s folk traditions, embodied in songs, games, dances, wedding ceremonies and handi­crafts. Unesco was so impressed it added the so-called Isle of Women to its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

However, changes to the fishing industry in this corner of the Baltic have resulted in the men coming home more frequently, and in some cases, permanently. Just when things were running so smoothly …

Unlike its lush, mountainous neighbour, arid Porto Santo (population: 5,483) has a long beach of windblown Saharan sand. Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo likes to relax here and also to recover from the odd injury. Rich in minerals, the sand is used in the treatment of a number of ailments, including rheumatoid arthritis, and is a natural anti-inflammatory.

The island’s other famous visitor was Christopher Columbus – a museum in the 15th century Italian explorer’s former home documents his time on the island, with exhibits that include maritime artefacts and maps.

A Danish possession that became British, then finally German, Heligoland is a 75-minute hydrofoil ride from the German mainland. A popular port of call for military buffs, the 60-metre-high sandstone plateau once known as the Gibraltar of the North Sea was the scene of the largest non-nuclear explosion in human history.

After World War II, the British disposed of thousands of tonnes of unexploded ammunition in an operation appropriately code-named Big Bang.

Today, tourists zip over to the 170-hectare former naval fortress (population: 1,100) to stroll along windswept beaches and clifftop paths, join tours of air-raid shelters and tunnels, shop for duty-free items and tuck into seafood specialities on what is Germany’s only open-sea island.

As any pub-quiz aficionado will tell you, Europe’s most southerly point is the Greek island of Gavdos. Closer to the North African country of Libya than Athens, it’s an hour’s ferry ride from Crete.

There’s not a lot to do on Gavdos, which is exactly what attracts visitors. The 50 or so year-round residents are usually joined each summer by about 3,500 tourists, many of whom camp on beaches in the shade of gnarled juniper and pine trees. The Mediterranean waters are invitingly clear, the tangy air is pure and unpolluted, and, so far, there have been no cases of coronavirus on Gavdos.

Spain’s smallest inhabited island made the news recently when the local port authority agreed to introduce a year-round ferry service. Tabarca is just 1,800 metres by 400 metres, with a population of about 60, although that number swells during the summer months.

The island is about 25km from the Costa Blanca gateway city of Alicante and was once a base for pirates. That was until King Carlos III repopulated it with law-abiding Spaniards who built a defensive wall, fortress, light­house and barracks. Tabarca boasts a large sandy beach lapped by clear turquoise seas that were designated Spain’s first marine reserve in 1986.